Morning, February 16
Go To Evening Reading
“I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.”
Philippians 4:11
These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of
man. “Ill weeds grow apace.” Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man as
thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they
come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and
so, we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without
any education. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated.
If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want flowers,
there must be the garden, and all the gardener’s care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we
would have it, it must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by nature;
it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must
be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the
grace which God has sown in us. Paul says, “I have learned ... to be content;” as much as to say, he did not know how at one time. It cost him some
pains to attain to the mystery of that great truth. No doubt he sometimes
thought he had learned, and then broke down. And when at last he had
attained unto it, and could say, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,” he was an old, grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave—a poor prisoner shut up in Nero’s dungeon at Rome. We might well be willing to endure Paul’s infirmities, and share the cold dungeon with him, if we too might
by any means attain unto his good degree. Do not indulge the notion
that you can be contented without learning , or learn without discipline. It is not a power that may be exercised
naturally, but a science to be acquired gradually. We know this from
experience. Brother, hush that murmur, natural though it be, and continue
a diligent pupil in the College of Content.